Prospect Park Lake

It is April when common carp and Koi come together to spawn.  If you recall I located a
spawning area in Prospect Park Lake and posted pictures last year, at this time.

The fish become most active in the middle of the afternoon.  They swim in this cove and
jump out of the water.  But by the middle of May, The Koi will be gone from this part of the lake.

Those are not traffic cones at the bottom of the lake. 

Can you count the Koi  in this picture?  Look closely.

It is only when I get very close that I can see the common carp swimming beneath the
Koi.

For each Koi you see swimming just under the lakes surface there are at least 2 commons
 swimming below them.

An egret looking  for a mid afternoon snack

Looking for a few small fry bass

There are scores of panfish here along with carp.

All along the left shoreline there are newly swept spawning beds made by the large mouth bass.

The Orvis Full Flex fiberglass  fly rod with the Franco Vivarelli Goldstar semi automatic
fly reel.

I caught a few of these Bluegills using #14 soft hackles nymphs.  This 16cm fish really
made my rod jump and bend.

Covering 60 acres and with a depth of nearly seven feet, the Prospect Park Lake is one of the area’s most popular spots for catch-and-release fishing. The lake is especially rich in largemouth bass, with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation claiming that the lake holds the state’s largest population of the species. The park offers a free fishing clinic for kids 15 and under over the summer months, teaching them the basics of catch-and-release and lake ecology.